Budget Grand Bargain

I can understand why Republican leaders like this deal. They don't want to risk another government shutdown, given how badly they got burned by the last one earlier in the fall. But America would do better with another temporary spending resolution than with this raw deal.

In twelve weeks or so our new system of government-by-crisis will resume its regularly scheduled programming: more threats, more confrontations, and even more extreme rhetoric. There are only a few ways this could play out.

President Obama and Speaker Boehner understood the parameters of a solution and came remarkably close to a deal. The solutions are not difficult to imagine, just the willingness of our leaders to embrace them, and their followers to follow.